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On last weeks show we talked about a topic that is happening right in my hometown of Pittsburgh. It involves UPMC and West Penn Allegheny. Steve wanted to come on the show because he was unhappy that West Penn Allegheny was trying to call UPMC a monopoly, while also making the word itself look evil. Steve shows us how this is not the case and that we should embrace UPMC for doing so well in this region and paving the way for a new Pittsburgh renaissance.

The following is a transcript of Steve’s speech on the show. I am posting here so we all have a chance to read it. If you would like to share your opinions about this subject leave a comment or talk with us live on TalkShoe.com, 8pm Sundays.

This is an approximate transcript of what Steve Sheppard had said on the “Talk Objectivism” talkcast on July 22, 2007. The following is Steve’s views and not necessarily the views of Objectivism or this website.

Ladies and gentlemen this is Steve Sheppard speaking.

I’m temporarily taking over this talkcast and making it a speechcast. So please give me a few moments to say what I have to say first, then you all can talk about it.

Well, I wanted to call in tonight to make an observation/identification of what exactly is happening to the City of Pittsburgh right now. I think that Pittsburgh is now entering a second renaissance right now. The first one, having been the steel industry that my father had worked in and worked for, and now I’m working in the next one. Instead of steel - its medical science, medical care, medical technology that is the primary source of this new economic renaissance in Pittsburgh.

The very fountainhead of all this is: the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). They have grown 9-fold let me repeat that again, they have grown 9-fold since 1993. A $6 billion a year network, which has 19 hospitals and over 43,000 employees, making it not only the largest employer, but also the largest health care network in the Pittsburgh area.

Here is a very symbolic observation/identification that I’ve made in regards to this. Let’s look at the U.S. Steel Building in downtown Pittsburgh and its meaning. This is the tallest building in Pittsburgh and it stands as a symbol of the last economic renaissance and now that symbol is soon going to change, and rightly so, the new renaissance is here and we now have a symbol of it, a logo; the UPMC logo.

Let me explain to all of you as to why I say that. The building itself is going to be the new headquarters of UPMC, they will soon be the largest occupant there, taking over “The Top of the Triangle”, which is the buildings highest floor and at least a half dozen or so other floors along with it. They want to celebrate all of their success with a light display, by putting up the UPMC logo atop that very building, a building that has always been a highpoint for this city (not only literally but also economically), and will definitely continue to be, because the very placement of those signs, which is a $750,000 dollar project - is - the symbol of our new economic renaissance in Pittsburgh.

Because of its success, because of its rapid expansion in the healthcare market, it’s being scrutinized, watched closely, criticized, and most importantly denounced, because of this, by some.

The main instigator/promoter of such an attitude is none other than the antagonistic West Penn Allegheny Health system. This attitude stems from what Ayn Rand has identified as being “the hatred of the good, for being the good”, or as I say here, in this case, being the hatred of the productive/the efficacious/the successful for being the productive/the efficacious/the successful.

This attitude is very clearly exemplified by a spokesperson from West Penn Allegheny in regards to the recent, though not yet totally final (as far as I know), acquisition of Mercy Hospital by UPMC. The spokesperson’s name is Tom Chakurda has said this, which makes blood shoot out of my eyes while I read it to you:

“We remain concerned that this latest, acquisition of a hospital by UPMC is yet another elimination of that choice in the market and reflects a further attempt by UPMC to establish a health care monopoly in the area.”

They are calling for governmental intervention in this matter!

West Penn Allegheny is the second largest healthcare network in this region; it has 13,000 employees, which are around 30,000 less than UPMC. Them being a health care system that is itself a merger, that of West Penn and AGH makes that quote from the spokesperson, laughable.

But what does disturb me the most is the epistemic corruption that is often associated with the word monopoly. Let me break it down philosophically, Objectivist style. So let’s look at the forest, but also at some of its trees.

The word monopoly, of which some people use this word like the spokesperson did, attempting to smear the word monopoly, by trying (somehow and unsuccessfully) to make the word an inherently evil one, when it is anything but evil. A monopoly, in this case, is a single health care system that dominates a particular economic sphere. But, that certainly is not evil, but rather it is created and due directly to its success and superior productiveness. But a coercive monopoly, by which I mean a governmentally created one, where the government steps in and bar/bans all competitors in a particular economical sphere, by law, from even entering the market, allowing coercively a business to exist as a monopoly.

Now, under laissez-faire capitalism, would-be monopolists cannot keep out their competitors. If they were to do so against the free-markets’ - own - built in self-regulator, by charging high prices, say, for health care, they necessarily would make themselves even more vulnerable to the hungry up-and-coming entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

Thus, the very moment the government puts its hands in - to - the - economy, either this way, or through taxation, for another example, any time it’s hands enter in this way, it enters the realm of criminality, and we should place handcuffs around the wrists, of such hands. The government then becomes the very thing that it is in existence for - to protect us from criminals.

See the difference between a monopoly and a coercive monopoly? The difference is that they are diametrically opposite morally speaking. The former is a moral one, while the latter is an immoral one.
So why then should Mercy be given, by force, to the West Penn Allegheny Health System? By force and not by earning it. Well guess what I just found out? West Penn Allegheny Health System actually did try to - earn - Mercy Hospital, but - UPMC was able to propose a better deal, a mutually beneficially deal.

See, Mercy Hospital, has lost $60 million dollars in the last 3 years, which makes the hospital, itself as some representatives of the hospital have said a recent trend that is “unsustainable” (obviously). What they need is someone like UPMC, which can absorb that debt, and also let them remain a religious/faith-based hospital, and also acquire a Burn Unit - of which - UPMC does not have, and also have use of their beds. So, forcing them to go with, West Penn Allegheny Health System would not give Mercy any kind of mercy.